Happy Retro Xmas!!

Here are some of my retro Xmas goodies. Ive got alot of knee-hugger elves and ceramic pieces, plus The Saint's grandmother's aluminum tree. Below are elves and reindeer.

 

 More elves, some santas and some religious Xmas figurines.

 This is a cool mobile that I got at the estate auction, someone bought it and left it behind since its missing one Santa. I pounced, knowing I'd give it a good home along with all of my other 1950s era things.

 The TREE!!!!!

 Cool felt mailbag. Although  we havent gotten many cards, people just dont send them anymore. I hate that! One of my friends told me he was moving with the times and wasnt doing cards. This did not go over well with me and I told him I had better receive a card or else! I got the card a few days later. Where have all the polite social conventions gone?? Oh how I would love a time machine for Christmas! That and an Edison crank phonograph so I can play my 78 rpm jazz records.

Vintage thrifting bonanza!! (now spelled correctly)

Today I had to take a carload of stuff to the thrift store, because even a maximalist like myself has to make an effort at minimalism. Sooooo, while I was unloading the car I decided to pop into the shop, although I did not have high hopes, based on 99 percent of my past local thrifting excursions. Well, the thrifting gods smiled upon me, because not only was the store empty of other shoppers, I got these awesome things:
KILLER VINTAGE BARKCLOTH TIKI DRESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Open the window and you will hear me cheering!!  I have to wash it and iron it, and I cant wait to wear it!!

 

 

 

 

I also got these old Putz houses, yeah!!!! And some old glass made in the USA ornaments.

 

 

 

And, if the awesomeness of these finds wasnt enuf, I got these: Now an anvil will probably drop out of the sky......

 

The Money Trap 1966

Earlier this week I enjoyed The Money Trap, a 1966 noir starring Glenn Ford, Ricardo Montalban, Joseph Cotton, Rita Hayworth and Elke Sommer. This is one of the last noir pictures made, b/c by 1966 the genre was losing popularity. I thought this was a really good movie. I am a huge Glenn Ford fan.  Lots of suspense, cool camera angles, shadow, and a few good beatdowns are administered.   Awesome crime jazz soundtrack as well.  Ford plays a homicide detective who is married to the much younger and much wealthier Elke Sommer, and they live an extravagant lifestyle in a super cool pad. Actually Elke lives an extravagent lifestyle at home while  Glenn is always at work investigating lowlife who have committed murder in hell hole neighborhoods. Because Elke is so hot and all the men are after her, Glenn contemplates a life of crime so he can keep her in the lifestyle to which she has become accustomed. Perhaps this is not a good idea. It may be a very bad idea.

Great opening shots, 2 hardboiled dectectives in the car, off to see a murder scene in the rain. No murders on sunny days, people. Never.

Super amazing house where Glenn lives with Elke and dreads the bill collector.

 

Elke is working some sort of Zsa Zsa Gabor thing in this movie. Below, Glenn gazes adoringly as Elke  carries a little poodle and informs him that although her stock dividends are ceasing her woman  of leisure lifetstyle will not be, and he had better start earning some coin.

 

 

 

 

More fabulous parties at the pad, just hangin out poolside in suits and gowns. Glenn, meanwhile, is up to his eyeballs in unsolved murders down at the morgue and has to pound the pavement on the wrong side of the tracks to track the killer. No champagne for Glenn today.

 

 Investigating crime in seedy ginmills! Dig that gal in the sunglasses!

Rita Hayworth is in this and all I can say is What The Heck Happened????? She's a frump!!!

High Wall

I am a TCM channell junkie so the other nite I watched High Wall, starring Audrey Totter and Robert Total Babe Taylor. High Wall is a gritty noir where Taylor plays a WWII vet who is arrested and put in a mental hospital because he killed his wife upon his return from Burma. Or did someone else kill her? Audrey Totter is the doctor who decides to find out the truth. No gowns, no glamour, just tons of mystery and suspense, this movie is excellent! Many noir hallmarks such as shadows and low lighting, moral ambivilence, and murder!

The Unsuspected 1947

 

 The other nite I screened, as opposed to merely watched,  The Unsuspected, a 1947 film noir mystery starring Audrey Totter and Claude Rains. It was EXCELLENT! Lots of great camera angles, shadows, suspense, double crosses and, most importantly, murder murder murder. The plot can basically be summed up as "is Uncle Victor a killer? He's so sweet and kind, there is no way." The women in this movie wear the most amazing clothes! The whole atmosphere of the film is terrific and makes me want to jump right into the movie and live there. Without becoming one of the murder victims, of course.

Audrey Totter in a dress that only someone with zero body fat  can pull off. Please note she is at home, throwing a black tie party, Just another tedious evening for the idle rich, alas.

Meanwhile, accross town:  Desolate streets and the obligatory flophouse. 


An omen through the window of said flophouse.

Audrey Totter, in femme fatale mode with cigarette smoke and great bracelets, with a cute guy. Exuding glamour at home. As I write this I am in jeans and sneakers, sigh.

 

Winter Bachelor Pad issue

Here's the cover for the upcoming winter issue of Bachelor Pad Magazine, which pretty much leaves me speechless. Obviously now I know why they keep me laboring behind the scenes instead of in front of the camera. Holy Cow.

new scores finally!

I had to hit a thrift store 125 miles from my house to score, and score I did! I got these awesome 1950s asian figurines, I thought finding stuff like this in the thrifting wilds was an urban myth, but no! It happened!!! They were $4 for the pair.

I also went to the Shupps Grove end of season flea/antique market event 2 weeks ago ( see post of Oct. 18, 2011 for info on the grove), and the dealers were all having clearance sales. I got a set of 6 of these swirly 1950s glasses for, hold onto your hat, $1.25!!!! I also got this nice vintage made in Japan reindeer.

Below is one of the reasons why I stood in line in the freezing cold to get into an estate sale a year ago. I needed this deco chrome and bakelite shaker. The chrome has a bit of wear and needs to be polished when I have some time. Everyone needs a chrome and bakelite shaker dont they?

I also went to an estate liquidators outlet somewhere in the Wilmington, DE area,where I got this great pink elephant liquor decanter and music box. What a great combination! I love old barware with pink elephants on it! The lamp post opens to hold the hooch and when you wind it up, or are yourself wound up, it plays How Dry I Am. Unfortunately it had broken in the past and someone glued it back together with this nasty yellow glue, and I had to scrub it off. There is still a little on there but its much better now. If you are interested in old stuff you know exactly what kind of glue I am talking about, its like they only had one kind back then and people botched repairs with it all the time.

Plus, the Xmas issue of Bachelor Pad Magazine is shaping up to be gangbusters!!

Halloween article in Pin Up Perfection

The new issue of Pin Up Perfection magazine is out, it is a Halloween issue with pin ups all done up like monsters and scary zombies. My article on spooky cinema is included, woohoo!!!! Eyeball it here: http://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/446596

Bachelor in Paradise

As stated in my last post, the 1961 movie Bachelor in Paradise, starring Bob Hope and Lana Turner, is a slice of 1950s heaven. Great tract houses, cool furnishings, awesome cars, killer clothes and simpler times, ah, simpler times. Bob plays a bachelor author who moves to the suburbs to write a book on housewives. He meets Lana, who is the realtor. Some photos from the movie show the following: people who work in offices wear clothes! No underwear is visible! No flip flops! No short shorts or stretch pants! No sweatpants! I work in an office and believe me, dignity is a thing of the past. Built in bars with TV consoles in your bachelor pad! Awesome car in the driveway!

Lana Turner

I am a huge Lana fan and just watched her star with Bob Hope in Bachelor in Paradise. I have to get some photos from my TV screen, the movie is set in what I can only describe as a 1950s heaven. Meanwhile, here's a Lana photo from her role in Keep Your Powder Dry, a 1940s story about WACs. I reviewed this movie in my article on WWII cinema in the July issue of Pin Up Perfection. I wonder if anyone read it.

FLYBOYS and editorial developments

I have had my nose to the literary grindstone, and my fingers to the keyboard. The new issue of Bachelor Pad Magazine is out and if you snag a copy you can read my thrilling masterwork on vintage radios. Who doesnt love vintage radios? I demand to know! If you say you dont you have no soul, do you hear me, no soul! Vintage radios rule my world. In other developments: Right now I am reading FLYBOYS by James Bradley, who wrote the best seller Flags of Our Fathers. Flyboys is the true story of 8 US fighter pilots who were shot down over Chichi Jima (which is next door to Iwo Jima) during WWII. The book is excellent albeit disturbing on a number of levels due to the war. Not for the fainthearted. A tale of courage!! More people ought to wake up and smell the coffee as far as WWII and military heroism is concerned. <

I also have an article on WWII movies in the July Patriotic Pride issue of Pin Up Perfection Magazine, complete with a misspelled title on the front cover. Oy. Use this link to Eyeball it here:http://www.pinupperfectionmagazine.com/ Lastly, Ive got articles coming out in the August issue of Victory Girls Magazine and in the upcoming Bachelor Pad special edition called The Nightcap. Over 18 please,the issue is a tad naughty, Im the only woman in it who isn't topless. (Which is probably a blessing for the readers). The mag just features my rapier wit. As Dorothy Parker once said, when I get up in the morning I brush my teeth and sharpen my tongue. OLE!!

1940s Glamour Portraits

This is my new book of 1940s movie star glamour portraits, which I picked up at this week's estate auction. For a song, I might add. Behold the glamour and sophistication of a bygone era!

Rich Young and Pretty

Well, it ought to be the title of my autobiography but i'ts not, Rich Young and Pretty is a movie from 1951, starrring Jane Powell, Vic Damone, Fernando Llamas and Danielle Darrieux. Our young heroine accompanies her diplomat father to France and falls in love, much to her father's dismay. Will parental authority triumph over young love? This movie was exactly what the doctor ordered after a hard day on the office trenches as far as I was concerned. Gorgeous dresses, gorgeous scenery, fluffy light plot and some nice music. I was flipping over the wardrobe in this movie. No one was in sweatpants and I didnt see anyone's underwear. Plus everyone had shoes on. Woody wagons too! Young lady you will not fall in love with a handsome stranger while we are in Paris, do you hear me?

Tiki Bar build and flea finds

This is a photo of my basement, where th e walls have been rebuilt and covered with waterproofing cement by the basement waterproofing people I hired. You can see, amidst the horror and pain and water flow meter, where I am coating the walls with a specialized sealant. The color is "sesame" and will compliment the tiki bar I am goin g to set up when this one-woman project is completed. This is going to take a while but I am psyched because when Im done with the sealing ( 2 coats heaven help me) I am gonna go bananas and set up a mid century polynesian paradise and showcase all of my vintage stuff. I am talking bamboo, thatch, tiki mugs, tikis, etc. Forget man cave, this is the gal's retro hideaway. Stay tuned if anyone actually reads any of this. Also, below are my most recent flea market finds. One 1950s beaded cardigan that fits, huzzah! and one grey crocheted handbag with lucite clasp. It came with a little card inside that says Women's Club of New Rochelle, Mrs. Raymond F. Martin, May 31, 1948. I have also been to three different Goodwills and come out empty handed. I do so much better at the flea.

Pin Up Style going mainstream

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/17/fashion/a-sly-wink-to-pinups-of-the-past.html?_r=1&hpw This is the link to a NY Times article in today's paper on the growing trendiness of pin up girl fashions. Im not sure if you can see the article w/o having a password to the paper. But anyhow its point is that Battie Page Clothing Co. is doing well and the style of the rockabilly gal is moving to the forefront, being embraced by young women who like the 1950s. Personally I hate it when my obscure interests become mainstream, or more mainstream. But the upside is that when the trendies lose interest and dump all of their dresses at the thrift shop I can sweep in and buy them.

Flea market season in full swing

Flea market season is in full swing and I bought a few things this past weekend. I got these great melmac dishes with matching tray, made by Stetsonware. Snacks are bound to taste better when served out of these bowls. YES!! I also got an aqua divided serving bowl which I have soaking to get all of the filth off of it. Alas, many a merchant sells things "as is." I dont mind because I expect that clean items would cost more. I cannot resist stuff in pink and aqua!!! Why have we as a society turned our backs on this color scheme? I do not like the current trend toward earth tones. Blah, so drab. Anyhow, I also SCORED this vintage ceramic tiki mug from the Hawaii Kai restaurant. The mug was made by Jard Products in Japan. This is a total score for Pennsylvania because there are very few tiki souveniers to be found here, unlike in California. PA is a tiki free zone for the most part. This pains me because I am a bona fide dyed in the wool Polynesian Pop disciple who is obsessed with retro tiki culture. I need more tiki, more money and power and a 1960s Shelby Cobra in case you were wondering.

Viva CD purchases and Auction report April 2012

Here are 4 of the CDs I got a Viva: 2 volumes of Rare Blues Girls on King; Rockin’ on Acorn-Regent Vol. 1, which features excellent 1950s r&b, blues and gospel tunes; and Hands Off! The 1950-1956 Modern Studio recordings of Dolly Cooper, Zola Taylor, Helen Humes, Donna Hightower and Linda Peters. I have been listening to Rockin’ on Acorn-Regent around the clock, it is excellent. I got about 6 more Cds at Viva, these cats from England were selling them and they gave me good advice on what to choose. As for the estate auction, pickins have been slim lately but I did get this cute turquoise percolator and a set of pink Asian figurines. My photo makes them look dull, they are pretty pink. Hey, Im a junker, not a photographer.